Choices
by rlassie
Summary: Imprints are messy and complicated, bringing people together as well as tearing others apart. How will Leah handle fate handing her her own mess to deal with, especially when the other half of said mess is not only not part of the tribe, but also just a kid? Short story, eventual HEA, rated M for language, violence and adult content in the final chapter.
1. Chapter 1

**Choices**

Disclaimer: The Twilight Franchise does not belong to me. Poobum.

**Chapter One**

* * *

Nathaniel Green was nine years old when Leah Clearwater imprinted on him. Though years had passed since then, she still remembered it like it was yesterday, and she still wished with all her heart that it had never happened. Unfortunately, fate has its own plans, so Leah walked into Emily's house for Claire's tenth birthday party that day, none the wiser that her world was about to be flipped on its head for the second time in her life.

She didn't want to be there. Her pack had come home for a while since Jake and the others were missing everyone, and although her bitterness and anger had settled with time and distance, it had only settled slightly. By then, she could go to joint pack events such as this one without visibly showing how much she didn't want to attend, but that didn't mean that it still didn't grate at her.

Still didn't point out to her exactly what her cousin had that she didn't.

Her face was calm as she'd walked in the door, none of her reluctance showing on it. One thing she had learnt while she was away was to control her temper, and it now took quite a lot to get her riled up. Funnily enough, the leeches had helped her with that, the blond Barbie the one who had initially reached out with the offer to help her learn. She smiled slightly as she walked through the empty house and into the kitchen, putting her mom's potato bake in the fridge with the rest of food. They'd been sort of friends, her and Rosalie, since the first time the bloodsucker had intentionally insulted her and Leah hadn't burst into a great, hulking wolf. Didn't mean they _liked_ each other, but their tolerance had certainly improved.

As the sound of the party drifted through the open window, Leah headed out the screen door into a jam-packed back yard. The noise escalated as she stepped out onto the porch and disapproval trickled through her at the variety of the attendees. Not only were Claire's family there, pack included, but Jake's Nessie was there as well, along with a handful of Claire's friends from school.

Shifters and half-breeds and humans, all mingling together. Leah didn't like it at all. There was too much potential of something happening, something going wrong, and then where would they be? Those kids had no clue about the hidden part of Claire's life, and if things took a turn, they'd have a fuck load of explaining to do. But of course, no one had listened to her when she'd pointed that out. They never did.

Claire wanted them all together, and Quil did his best to give Claire whatever she wanted. That was the nature of the imprint. She snorted at that thought, stepping off the porch and striding into the fray. She seriously hoped that she never ended up that whipped.

Unbeknownst to her, the one person who could do that very thing had just arrived, though she wouldn't see him until a good hour later. By then, she'd had enough of lovey dovey family bullshit and was leaning back against a tree at the edge of the forest, hand resting on her stomach. She'd done her duty, wished the guest of honour happy birthday and chatted with her pack mates until her brain had turned to mush. Sighing to herself, she wondered when it would be considered late enough to allow her to hit the road. Both Jake and Sam would be pissed if she left too early.

Maybe she could pull the sickness card? She was feeling sort of weird, like there was something pulling at her gut, making her feel hollow.

An angry yell rang across the yard before she could dwell on it further, and her head whipped round, as did every other member of the packs. Over by the garden a boy on the ground, hand over his nose as another boy stood over him with his fists clenched. The kid standing was all but vibrating with anger, a mutinous snarl pulling at his mouth. People were quickly approaching the pair and the boy's head shot up, much like a wolf scenting prey. His head shifted minutely in her direction and Leah saw his eyes for the first time.

Her world imploded.

It was as if the earth trembled. Her knees gave out as her insides shook, and in a snapshot she was bound and tied, hooked through her centre, all other ties cut and reformed to focus solely on the angry little boy standing twenty feet away from her. Her breath caught in her throat, heart pounding so rapidly that she thought she was going to pass out. A deep, foreign warmth swarmed up in her belly and headed straight for her slamming heart, detonating inside her ribcage and then reaching out towards the boy, wanting, _needing_ to be near him, to make sure he was okay, to make him happy. It was complete and final, horrifyingly heavy, and she was drowning in it.

Sam had once described imprinting as gravity no longer being the thing binding him to the earth. For the first time, Leah actually understood what he was talking about.

While her existence turned in on itself, the scene on the other side of the yard continued on as if nothing had happened. The boy on the ground pulled himself to his feet, removing his hand to show blood dripping down his chin. His mouth pulled into a snarl of its own and he lunged for the one who had punched him.

Leah moved faster than she ever had in her life.

Though the wolves surrounding the two could have stopped the attack in time, protecting her imprint was instinctual, and she was across the yard in a heartbeat, crouching down defensively in front of the boy, growling at the enemy who was now hers as well. Her limbs shook and for the first time in about two years, Leah found herself in danger of transforming out of anger.

The absolute _shock_ on her pack mate's faces would have amused her if she'd been able to think straight, shock that had grown vastly as she'd herded the boy behind her backwards until he was pressed against a tree, Leah covering him from all angles. A vicious snarl ripped from her throat, claws digging into her palms and saliva sliding down her chin as her teeth sharpened and lengthened. Her eyes jumped from here to there, looking for any and all danger, before finally settling to watch Jacob approach cautiously, hands held out in front of him, voice a muted buzz in her ear. She was well and truly sunk in the imprints pull on her wolf, however, and it wasn't until she accidently brushed against the boy and felt him trembling that her Alpha's words broke through her protective haze.

"Leah, you're scaring him."

Just like that, her fury died, cut off at the root. The wolf pulled back inside her skin and she stilled, slowly getting to her feet, eyes turning to the boy behind her. As soon as she did, his fear hit her right in the nose, nearly bringing her to her knees again. He was cringing back against the trunk, bottom lip trembling as he tried to pull further away from her, eyes so lightly blue they looked like ice, wide and blank. His hands were scrambling for purchase on the bark and he looked like an animal who knew it was being hunted.

He looked like an animal who'd excepted its fate.

She'd frightened him.

She'd _terrified_ him.

Her wolf howled inside her mind and Leah did the only thing she could do. She bolted.

~0~

Her Alpha came to see her three days later. She was sitting on her mother's back porch, trying to fight the urge to go see him, to make sure he was all right when Jacob stepped out of the forest and walked towards her. He didn't say anything, just took a seat, and Leah had to fight another urge.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever wanted to know a name so much.

"So…" Jake finally said, shifting in his seat to look at her. "Tough couple of days, huh?"

"Not really," she deadpanned, eyes on the backyard. "Box of birds when you think about it."

Her Alpha chuckled and then sighed, running his hand through his scruffy hair.

"I'm sorry, Leah."

His Beta frowned. "What for?" she asked as she turned to him. "It's not your fault."

"No, but I know how you feel about imprinting and I know that this is the last thing you wanted. If I could reverse it, I would."

Leah snorted bitterly. "Yeah, that's never going to happen. I'm stuck with this and I better get used to it."

"It's not all bad, you know," Jake said softly. "Imprinting can be a very good thing if you let it."

"Oh, yeah, Jake, for you and your vamp maybe, but not for someone who's imprint is a kid who's fucking scared shitless of her!" Leah snapped, glaring at the man. "I terrified him! He'll never want to know me now!"

"What you did was instinctive and influenced highly by the stress and shock of a newly formed imprint," Jake said, the conviction in his tone absolute. "That kid was going to attack Nate, he'd already done it anyway-"

"Nate?" Leah blurted, interrupting him. "That's his name?"

Jacob blinked a couple of times and then smiled, shaking his head. "Of course you wouldn't know. Yeah, that's his name. Nathaniel Green. He's a friend of Claire's from that youth centre in Port Angeles that Emily takes her to once a week. I don't know much more about him, but from what I've heard, he doesn't, ah…"

"Doesn't _what_, Jake?" Leah asked when he trailed off and looked uncomfortable.

"Well, there's, ah, there's speculation that he doesn't have a very good home life. That his father may be…"

"Violent?"

"Yeah," Jake answered, eyeing her carefully. "That may be the reason why he was so scared, you know. Any show of violence would frighten him."

"He didn't seem to have any trouble with his own violence," Leah said, voice deceptively calm. Inside her head, she was screaming. The thought of anyone laying their hands on her imprint… the cunt was a dead man.

Jake shrugged, still watching her. "Common way to lash out, apparently. From what I heard, the kid that he punched was being a little shithead and saying some pretty nasty things."

"He was fucking lucky I didn't tear him apart," Leah muttered, glaring into the yard again. Her skin itched with anger, which was very off putting. She'd thought she'd stopped herself from reacting this way, or at least controlled it more. That control was now slipping through her fingers and she did not like it.

"Yeah, he is," Jake agreed quietly. "So, you going to go see him? Nate, I mean, not the little shithead."

Leah looked at him in disbelief. "Why would I do that, Jacob?"

"Because he's your imprint, Leah."

"Who'll shake in his shoes when he sees me!"

"Jesus, Lee," Jake groaned. "I'll admit it wasn't the best first impression, but you can change that! He needs you as much as you need him. Don't tell me you haven't felt the absence already."

Hand automatically going to her chest at those words, Leah rubbed the dull, achy emptiness that had begun to spread through it the night before, the hook in her centre's constant pulling not making it any easier to put up with. Jacob smirked when he saw the movement, making her scowl and quickly lower her hand.

"See? He'll probably feel it as well, though he won't understand it like you do. You'll be doing him a favour by going to see him. You know you can't fight an imprint, Leah, so why are you even trying?"

The she-wolf sighed and turned towards her Alpha fully, frustration bubbling inside her. There was one thing he hadn't seemed to have taken into account.

"Jake, he's a kid."

Jacob cocked his head and waited for her to continue, before realizing that that was all she was going to say. His brow pulled down into a confused frown. "So?"

"So? _So?_ Jacob, I imprinted on a fucking _little_ _boy!_" Leah growled. "He can't be more than ten years old! What am I supposed to do with that? I'm not a paedophile, for fuck's sake!"

"What? No, of course you're not, what the hell are you talking about? You _know_ that the imprint isn't only romantic, Leah! Look at Quil, Christ, look at me! I _never_ felt that way for Ness when she was a kid! That would have been disgusting and just plain wrong! How can you possibly think that that's what the imprint means for you?"

Sitting back under the onslaught, Leah blinked in surprise. Well, well, seems she'd hit a bit of a nerve. Who had Jake been butting heads with over imprinting on a baby? The only people she could think of you'd renew protesting now that Renesmee had grown up was the mind freak bloodsucker and his doormat of a wife, and lord knew where they were at the moment.

"Yes, but it's always developed into a physical and emotional relationship, hasn't it?" she countered, ignoring his issues for the moment. "There's you and the brat-"

"Nessie," Jacob corrected sternly.

"The brat," she agreed and then continued as if he hadn't even spoken. Jake sighed and shook his head. "Sam and Emily-"

"How is that developing into a physical and emotional relationship?" Jake interrupted. "They weren't friends first!"

"I'm well aware of what they were and what they weren't, Jacob," Leah said dryly, smiling slightly when he winced. "But he could have decided to just be her friend, couldn't he? The imprint will be whatever the imprintee needs. Yours and mine and Quil's fucked up bonds must prove that, as none of us are kiddie fiddlers."

Jacob grimaced and then looked at her, hesitation in his eyes. "Have you ever thought… have you ever thought that maybe she needed him to love her? To be what he is to her now? That he had even less of a choice than he first thought?"

Leah stared at him for a long, silent moment as that suggestion swirled through her heart and head. It made sense. Whatever they need is what the legends said. Did Emily actually want Sam, even when she'd pushed him away?

Shockingly, Leah found she didn't really care. Not anymore. Though she hadn't forgotten the relationship she had with Sam and she probably never would, she found that she now thought of him as a proper ex. Someone she'd missed for a while after he'd broken up with her, but then after some time, had moved on from.

Frankly, not hating him any longer was a relief.

"It doesn't really matter anymore," she said quietly, ignoring the way Jake's brows winged in surprise. "But it does bring me to my next point. All of the imprints have ended in a strong emotional bond, bar Claire as she still far too young. Every one, Jake. The only ones who aren't married yet are you and your vamp, as she's only just grown up."

"And you don't like the thought that that might happen with you and Nate someday?" her Alpha asked softly. Leah groaned and rubbed her face with her hands, frustration ballooning rapidly.

"Jesus, Jacob, I want to give him the fucking _choice! _I don't want him to be trapped like that! Claire's going to fall for Quil and they're going to get married, it's pre bloody destined! I don't want that for him! I want him to have his own life, not influenced by something that should have nothing to do with him! Christ, he's a paleface, for god's sake! "

"He has a choice, Leah."

"No! No, he doesn't!" she snapped, getting up and beginning to pace. "Even if he doesn't feel anything more than friendship for me, I'm always going to be around! I'm always going to be in his life! He can't get rid of me! Where's the fucking choice in that?"

Jacob sighed. "Lee, I'm sorry, but it sounds like normal human interaction to me."

Leah turned and looked at him once more, shoulders falling as she realized that he just didn't understand. And why would he? All of the current imprints were all happy, happy, joy, joy, Quil and Claire included, even if they were just brother and sister at the moment.

_Can't I be the one chosen for once? Is that just too much to ask?_

"It's okay," she muttered, taking a seat again. "Just ignore me."

"Oh, if only," Jacob grinned, the expression widening when his Beta snorted. "I still think you should go see him. Let him get to know you, Lee. We aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so you have time. Think about it, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," she said, absently rubbing her chest again. The ache was getting worse. And there was a choice removed in itself.

How was she going to know that he wanted her in his life truly, when his very insides punished him if she wasn't?

~0~

Leah held out for two more days before that constant niggle got too bad. In the end, she was finding it hard to breathe, her lungs backed up and sitting like solid rocks in her chest, the hook gorging a hole in her gut. As a result, she woke up that morning like normal, went to go down to breakfast, and then somehow found herself at the edge of the reservation. She couldn't remember getting there, but there she was, and the thought that she had no control over her own body pissed her off.

She was trying to make herself turn around and head back to her mother's house – which wasn't working very well – when an old, battered truck pulled up beside her, door opening. She glanced over and scowled when she saw Embry sitting in the cab, watching her.

They stared at each other for a long moment before Embry spoke.

"You're just hurting yourself, you know. Him, too."

"What the fuck do you know about it, Call?" Leah growled, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "I don't see you with a damn imprint!"

"No, but I know what it's like to love someone and deny that you do," he said quietly. "It hurts a lot more than accepting it does. Surely you can see him once, Leah. Just once, if that's all you can handle. I'm heading to Port Angeles now, if you want the ride."

Leah bit her lip, indecision crawling through her. On the one hand, she didn't know how much longer she could stop herself from going to the kid. But on the other…

Both wolves knew that once wouldn't be enough.

"Come on, Lee. Why suffer when you don't have to?"

It was the something in his tone that finally made up her mind. She took a step towards the cab, and then another, and then she was climbing onto the seat and closing the door. Embry smiled at her and quickly pulled back onto the road, neither saying much until they were on the other side of Forks.

"So, who'd you love, Call?" Leah asked, curiosity getting too much for her. Embry looked at her and didn't say anything for a while, until she was sure he wasn't going to answer. She was about to prod him when he finally decided to reply.

"Someone who doesn't love me back."

The she-wolf threw him a sharp look, that something back in his tone. He sounded forlorn and resigned, like no matter how hard he tried, that one fact was never going to change. It was almost as if…

"Someone who _can't _maybe?" she asked slowly, thoughts churning.

"Something like that," Embry murmured, eyes focused on the road. "But you've got this chance to be happy, Lee. I don't understand why you're not letting yourself."

Leah sighed. "He's a kid, Embry. It feels like it should be wrong to want to know him this badly."

"Are you going to instigate anything you shouldn't?"

"What? No!" she barked, throwing him a look of disgust. Embry met it calmly.

"Well, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?"

Having thoroughly stumped his companion, he turned back to the road and didn't say anything more until they reached Port Angeles. As they pulled up to the youth centre, Leah looked at her pack mate in surprise. He shrugged.

"Quil goes on about Claire so often, I know her schedule as well as he does. They'll be here all day. I've got a job on the other side of town that'll last a couple of hours. I can come pick you up when I'm done, or you can run home, it's up to you."

Leah nodded and took a deep breath, hand hesitating on the door handle before pushing it open. She glanced back at her ride as she got out.

"Are you sure there's no way?" she asked softly, his predicament still on her mind. Embry sent her a small, weary smile.

"Positive."

"Shit. I'm sorry, Embry."

"What do you have to be sorry about, Clearwater?" the wolf asked. "Nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Go now. Text me later and let me know what you're doing."

"Will do," Leah said, closing the door. The truck pulled away and she let the hook lead her towards the nondescript building, already feeling lighter.

Who knew air could taste so sweet?

Her hands were shaking as she pushed open the door, but she did her best to ignore the nerves turning her stomach to knots. Worst case scenario, he would run when he saw her. If that happened, well then… she didn't know what she would do.

She prayed to every deity known that he didn't run.

The large, hall-like room was bursting with activity as Leah stepped in, so much so that it was hard to pinpoint exactly who was in charge. She figured she needed to let someone know she was here – they were a youth centre after all, if she didn't introduce herself, she'd probably get kicked out as quick as she could blink. Eyes sweeping the room, the she-wolf was about to head over to a group of adults who looked like they were setting up some sort of activity, when that hook in her gut _pulled_ and her head snapped around.

Nate walked through a door at the other end of the room and sat himself down in a corner.

He hadn't seen her yet, which, after a moment, she decided was probably a good thing. She needed an in, someone who knew both him and her to introduce them. She couldn't just barge on over, which is what she'd very nearly done as soon as she'd seen him.

It was as if Seth had disappeared, staying away for a long time and not telling anyone where he was. When she saw the kid, messy black hair falling every which way and swamped in clothing that was far too big for him, the need to go to him, to check him over, to make sure he was healthy and wasn't hurt, jolted through her, much as it would if her brother had been out of contact for a while. It was a relief, actually, to see him and to know that there was nothing more than familial feelings there. Strong ones, sure, but purely platonic. The thought that something may have gone wrong with the imprint and she was now a pervert had been one of the things keeping her up at night.

"Leah?"

The she-wolf turned, blinking when she saw the last person she expected – though she shouldn't have really, as the woman was the one who brought Claire every week. Her cousin was standing next to her with a puzzled frown on her face, and when Leah's gaze flicked back to Nate for just a second, Emily followed it. Leah scowled at the slightly knowing smile that appeared on her face.

"Oh. Well then. That took you longer than I thought it would."

The scowl deepened. "Shut the hell up, Em, and just introduce me, would you?"

Her cousin chuckled and Leah found herself hiding her own smile. It was the first time she'd spoken to Emily without sneering in she couldn't remember how long. Though they'd probably never be as close as they were when they were growing up – before Sam – Leah didn't hate her any longer.

Contrasting her relief over not hating Sam, she wasn't entirely sure if she was happy about it this time. Men were a dime a dozen, but Emily had done the one thing a girl should never do to her best friend.

Then there was the fact that if you live on bitter street long enough, you got to like it there.

"Okay, but I think we need a wingman, so to speak," Emily said, looking around the room. "Help ease you in better. Where is she? Ah, there. Claire!"

The tween in question spun around at the sound of her name and grinned at her aunt, eyes widening slightly when she saw Leah standing beside her. She turned and spoke quickly to the group of girls she was sitting with, before jumping up and shooting across the room towards them.

Leah watched her as she ducked and dodged, streaking through the crowd. She shook her head. She loved her little cousin, she really did, but the girl had so much _energy_. It made Leah feel old.

"Hey, Leah! You're here! Did you come to see Nate?"

Leah winced as she all but shouted the sentence, excited voice ringing through the room and making people turn and look. Her eyes shot over to the corner and her stomach twisted again when she saw that Nate was one of those people. He was staring at Leah with no expression on his face, and when he saw her looking, he quickly looked down, going back to whatever he was messing with on the floor. Leah had no clue what he was thinking.

Was he still afraid of her?

"Inside voice, Claire," Emily scolded quietly as the girl came to a stop beside them. Leah went still when she stepped closer and put her hand on her shoulder, the she-wolf only just stopping herself from instinctively moving away from the silent show of support. Old habits die hard.

"Sorry!" Claire said in a stage whisper, grinning again. She turned to Leah and looked at her expectantly. "So? Did you?"

"Yeah, I did," Leah answered slowly, still watching the kid on the other side of the room, looking back at her cousin and frowning when Claire laughed and clapped her hands in glee. "Quit it, runt. I don't want to make a big deal out of it, so throttle down the excitement, okay?"

"Why don't you want to make a big deal out of it?" Claire asked, head cocked curiously. "It's an imprint, Leah! Imprints are a big deal!"

"Imprints turn lives upside down, Claire!" Leah snapped. "How exactly do you think he's going to feel if he's bombarded with it straight off? He's not like you; he hasn't lived with this his whole life!"

"I think he'll like it," the young girl muttered stubbornly, not at all intimidated by her cousin's tone, or the low growl the she-wolf let out. "But, fine, it can stay on the down low at the moment. So, we going, or what?"

She bounced backwards, glancing over at the corner and then back at Leah and Emily, eyebrows raised. Leah took a deep breath.

_Please, please don't let him run._

"He's quiet, skittish and a bit of a loner, Lee, but if he didn't want to meet you, he would have already left the room. He doesn't stick around during situations he doesn't like. It'll be fine."

Emily's soft voice in her ear got her moving, which was another thing that never would have happened before the imprint. Leah took another breath, nodded, and then followed Claire as the girl skipped across the room. Nate looked up a couple of times during their approach, once again looking away almost immediately. It was as if he couldn't help himself.

"Hey, Nate!" Claire chirped once they'd reached him, plopping herself down on the floor. "Can we join you? This is my cousin, Leah."

The kid looked surprised, glancing at Claire quickly and then up at the tall woman, before once more focusing on what he had spread on in front of him. As Leah sat down – more like Claire _tugged_ her down – she realized that it a puzzle. A massive puzzle, which he'd already completed about a quarter of.

"Hello, Nate," the she-wolf said, her tone deliberately soft and steady. Her imprint threw her another lightning quick glance, not answering. She still couldn't read anything in those pale, icy blue eyes.

"So, yeah, Leah wanted to say sorry for scaring you at the party. She didn't mean to."

Head shooting round, Leah glared at her young cousin, who just grinned back, innocence shining in her eyes. Leah huffed and looked back at Nate, who's head was canted ever so slightly in her direction, eyes still on the puzzle. His was listening, though. Maybe apologizing first thing was a good idea. She'd been going to apologize anyway, she'd just planned on putting it off for a while. Reminding Nate of something that had frightened him straight away hadn't seemed like a good idea. Her meddling little cousin had just thrown a wrench into that plan.

"I, ah, yeah, I did want to apologize. I didn't mean to scare you like that and I'm sorry that I did. I swear it won't happen again."

The kid's hands still briefly on the pieces when she spoke, before resuming picking them up and placing them.

"S'okay."

His voice was so quiet, Leah doubted she would have heard it if she didn't have enhanced senses. She frowned at the answer. It sounded like something he said all the time and didn't at all mean.

"No, it's not. Not at all. Everyone has the right to feel safe, Nate. It won't happen again."

"Jeez, Leah, deep much?" Claire quipped, giggling when Leah scowled at her. Once again, Nate didn't say anything, but she did sense that he might actually believe her this time. Though he was still focused on his puzzle, his body language seemed more open, his shoulders no longer so tense, his head canted just that touch further towards her. Leah grinned to herself at the accomplishment.

"So, you want a hand? We can help you," Claire said, looking at the she-wolf, who pursed her lips and then nodded. She didn't think she'd ever actually done a puzzle before. Glancing at Nate, she caught his brief shrug, and deciding to take that as a green light, she reached for a puzzle piece determinedly.

~0~

It took an hour, a surprisingly short amount of time in Leah's mind. But then again, according to Claire, Nate did puzzles all the time, so maybe it wasn't. The she-wolf didn't speak much and Nate didn't speak at all, but somehow that was okay, because she was spending time with him and he wasn't afraid of her any more. She also found herself enjoying putting the puzzle together as well. At some point, Claire got bored and wandered off, leaving the boy and woman alone. Leah thought that maybe the kid might pull into himself a little when his friend left, but surprisingly he didn't. When they were about half way through, he even started stopping her when she went to put a piece in the wrong place, silently taking the piece and placing it where is should go, even sometimes leading her hand.

Once they'd placed the final piece, Leah sat back and took the completed puzzle in. She hadn't seen the box, so she had no clue what the picture was until it was nearly complete. Lying on the floor in front of them, spread out in all its glory, was a incredibly majestic looking dragon. A deep, fiery red, it curled itself around the puzzle, leathery wings stretched wide, a vast, snarling mouth facing out at them filled with sharp, pointed teeth. It was sitting on top of a mountain, claws digging into the stone, volcanoes exploding all around it. Whoever had painted the original picture was amazingly talented. Leah stared in awe.

"Holy shit. That is so fucking cool."

"Leah, language!" Emily scolded from behind her, making her cousin almost jump out of her skin. Shockingly, she hadn't heard her approach. She'd been too caught up in the puzzle.

"Shit, sorry," she said, answering automatically and then clapping her hand over her mouth when a group of kids across from them burst into giggles. She threw Emily an apologetic look, who sighed and shook her head, smiling slightly, the expression transforming as wonder and approval abruptly took its place. Leah frowned and followed her gaze, going completely still when her eyes landed on her ghost of an imprint.

He was smiling.

Not widely, it was more of a half-smile that only just tilted a corner of his mouth up, but it was a smile all the same.

_Nate was smiling._

Leah felt like she'd hung the moon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Choices**

Disclaimer: SM has all the money, doesn't she? And I clearly have none. So, that must mean that she owns everything, apart from the idea for this story and Nate. They're mine. Unfortunately, that still means that I have no money…

**Chapter Two**

_Leah felt like she'd hung the moon._

* * *

**Warning! - This chapter contains physical violence.**

* * *

Going to see Nate every week became a part of her routine, a habit of a sort. Leah would drive to Port Angeles at the start of the day and run errands for her mother, then park outside the youth centre and spend a couple of hours with her imprint. They were never very talkative meetings, but with time Leah learnt that Nate communicated in different ways. The kid was as much of a puzzle as the ones they completed together nearly every week.

When he wanted them to, Nate's eyes could tell you exactly what he was thinking. They would shine when he was happy and go blank when he was upset. After three months, they shone more than they shut down. The half-smile also made more of an appearance and she even got a full one once or twice. The days that happened, Leah went home with a massive cloud of euphoria hanging over her, her smile so wide, it ended up scaring the people who knew her. She didn't care. All that mattered was that Nate was happy. His happiness brought on her happiness.

When Nate did speak, it was in soft sentences, and Leah learnt to listen whenever he did. The kid was smart. Like genius smart, though the she-wolf may have been a little bias in that assumption. He asked intelligent questions and they got into more than one debate if he disagreed with the answers she gave. He certainly wasn't shy when he got to know someone, and Leah was thrilled that he counted her as one of the very small group of people he trusted.

Leah never spoke about Claire's birthday again and Nate never asked her about it, though she could tell he was still curious. She'd catch him looking at her every once in a while with his head cocked to the side, as if he was trying to figure something out. He'd turn away when she'd meet his gaze, but she could easily read the questions in his pale blue eyes. He also never seemed to question why she was there every week, and why she spent a solid two hours in his company, instead of spreading herself around like the other volunteers did.

The she-wolf shied away from answering these questions, pretending that they hadn't been there in the first place, and justifying _that_ by telling herself he was too young. She didn't want to get into that yet. She didn't want him to feel trapped, which was the way she was positive he'd feel once she let him in on her secret. So, she ignored the curiosity in his eyes and just enjoyed his company.

Everything was going pretty well in Leah's opinion, until the day Nate's father showed up.

She knew he was going to be trouble the moment he walked in the door. Kyle Green was a big man. In his youth, his mass had probably leant more towards muscle, but now that the years – and the alcohol, going by the ruddiness of his cheeks – had taken its toll, that muscle had developed into fat. He thundered through the entrance and looked around, face flushed. Nate stiffening beside her was the only warning about shit hitting the fan that Leah got.

"Nathaniel!"

His bellow rang through the room, instantly stopping all conversation and turning everyone's attention to the bellower. Nate stiffened even further, the animation in his face falling away until it was blank and empty, his suddenly cold eyes locked on the figure in the doorway. He slowly got to his feet, Leah finding herself copying him and rising from the floor as well.

"Nathaniel! Get your good-for-nothing ass over here, boy! Now!"

The words were spat and far from friendly. Leah's wolf snarled inside her in response, an angry rumble that she only just stopped escaping her throat. She glared across the room at this man who thought he could talk to her imprint like he was something he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe. Who the hell did he think he was?

"Mr Green, you've been told before that we won't accept you speaking like that in this establishment," one of the youth centre supervisors said, hands fluttering in agitation. Leah's wolf growled louder. This man was Nate's _father?_ The suspicions Jake had shared with her back on her porch poured through her mind again, and the she-wolf was reaching out and stopping Nate from going any further before she'd even thought about it.

Nate looked back at her and blinked, seemingly surprised at the restraining hand on his arm. Slowly, he raised his eyes to meet hers and then shook his head. Leah scowled darkly, her other hand fisting at the vast hopelessness she read under the coolness in his expression.

"Nate, you don't have to go with him, you know that, right? Anyone here will help you if you need it. Hell, you can come home with me right now."

She spoke softly enough so that usually only she and the person she was speaking to would have heard her. However, because the room was still silent, her words carried, and Nate's father heard what she'd said very clearly. His face flushed even redder and eyes the same colour as his son's flared with insult and anger.

"Excuse me? Who the hell are you and why the hell do you have your hand on my kid's arm?"

Nate's eyes widened and the expression in them shifted to pleading. He shook his head once more, swallowing hard. Leah's heart swooped at the fear that was making both his body and his bottom lip tremble for the second time since she'd met him_._ Her head snapped towards the dead man in the doorway, teeth bared as her wolf shifted anxiously under her skin.

_You fucking asshole, you reduce this amazing little boy to shaking with terror? I'll tear you apart with my bare hands._

"I'm one of the people who actually _cares_ about your son, something that can't be said for you, can it?" she growled, eyes narrowed. Nate let out a strange little sound at her words and Leah flicked him a quick look before focusing back on his bully of a father. The big man's mouth had dropped open at her words. He quickly snapped it shut as he met her eyes again, angry expression flaring brighter.

"On, really? What's the stupid shit been telling you, huh? Whatever it is, it's not true. He's a worthless little liar who carves attention like a whore carves sucking cock."

"Mr Green!" the same supervisor spluttered as the room filled with horrified gasps. Leah gritted her teeth, her own body began to tremble, breath coming out in harsh pants as rage surged through her system. How _dare_ he? They were in a room full of _children_ and he mouths off like that, not to mention talking about his own _son_ that way? Oh, how she wanted to rearrange his face. Show him the massive errors of his ways and teach him a lesson in _respect-_

"Leah."

The whispered word had the power of a bomb, yanking her from her preoccupied thoughts and dragging her gaze away from the offensive bastard Nate called his father. Her imprint had moved to stand in front of her, and though his expression was calm, his eyes screamed for her attention, for her to listen to him.

"It's okay. I'll go with him."

"_No!_" Leah snarled, hand snapping out towards him. She froze in horror, mind reeling when the abrupt movement made him visibly flinch and take a step back, confirming all of her suspicions.

_Jesus, no. No, no, no, no, no!_

"Y-you don't have to," she muttered, trying not to let her shrieking panic invade her voice. Nate sent her that half-smile and her wolf whimpered at the weary knowledge in his eyes. No kid should look that old.

"Yes, I do. He's my father. I'll see you next week?"

"You will," a voice confirmed from behind them, Emily's presence suddenly hovering over Leah's shoulder. "And she's right, Nate. If you ever need anything, _anything,_ you know that we're right here."

Nate's gaze dropped. "I know, I just-"

"Nathaniel, stop sucking up to the scarred freak and get over here _now!_"

The wolf who was already pulling harshly at her chains, just begging to be released, began snapping and snarling even more. It was only Emily's hand tightening on Leah's shoulder that stopped the she-wolf from lunging at the man. Sure, Emily and she were no longer as close as they had been growing up, but Emily was still Pack, she was still her cousin, and Leah had still feared for her life when the woman had been attacked by what at the time she'd thought was a bear. This piece of shit had the audacity to comment on something that had nothing to do with him? He was lucky he was still breathing!

Another strange little sound escaped Leah's imprint and the she-wolf looked down in time to see a flash of darkness flitter across Nate's expression, reminding her forcibly of a flurried attack on another boy at Claire's birthday. It cleared as soon as he caught her looking, but it reminded Leah that there was more to the kid than the timid shyness he showed the world.

He was stronger than he looked. That wouldn't help if his dick of a parent decided to wail on him, like her wolf was howling was going to happen, but it made her feel just that tiny smidge better.

The tiniest smidge. Hell, less than the tiniest smidge. A quarter of a quarter of a thin slice of a smidge.

"Boy!"

Nate jumped at the shout and then turned around, his face blank once more. Leah's wolf whined and growled, pushing against her skin, scratching, howling and making her shake so hard, she felt like she was having a seizure. A low, whimpering snarl escaped through her lips and the world fractured as her vision shifted to lupine, claws pushing through her fingertips and spine rippling.

Her imprint was walking away from her, willingly placing himself in a dangerous situation. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.

She took a step forward.

"Leah, listen to me. You can't do this. If you stop Nate from going or attack his father, you'll just make it worse for him in the long run. Not only that, you'll expose the packs at the same time. Your wolf is already too close to the surface. You need to calm down and you need to do it now."

Emily's voice was a quiet murmur in her ear. Deep down, the she-wolf knew what she was saying made sense, but it wasn't helping any. Her wolf could smell victory and was pushing at her even harder.

_Mine. In danger. Need to hurt. Keep safe. Need to hurt!_

She felt the back of her shirt ripping as her muscles bulged.

"Lee, there are children here. If you do this, you will hurt them the way Sam hurt me. Maybe worse."

The words were pointed and direct and actually managed to push their way through the dampening affect her wolf was having on Leah's human mind. She didn't want to hurt anyone. It had nearly destroyed Sam when he'd lost control and ending up putting Emily in the hospital. The incident haunted both packs, an example of what might happen if you didn't learn to control yourself.

"You could end up hurting Nate, Leah."

_Anger, snapping, snarling, shifting, Emily screaming, on the ground weeping, blood, so much blood, God, what have I done? What have I done?_

Sam's memories tore through the haze of fury and vengeance, freezing the wolf in its place and slowly calming its human counterpart. Leah took a couple of deep breaths, the shakes subsiding. Her vision shifted back to human and her gaze locked on the rough grasp the dick had on Nate as he shoved him towards the door.

_Walking dead man. Just a matter of time._

The dead man looked back over his shoulder at Leah as he began to follow his son. His mouth pulled into a nasty snarl.

"Stay away from my kid, bitch, or you might just find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. You never know what can happen in the dead of night."

Then both he and Nate were gone and Leah was out the door a minute or two later, her wolf bursting through her skin the minute she hit the Olympic National Park. She stayed in her wolf form for the next week, switching between running a perimeter around Nate's school and sleeping in the shadows underneath his window. She ignored Jake when he tried to get her to change back, to eat a solid meal and get a decent night's sleep. Short of an Alpha order, she wasn't leaving her imprint's side for the time being.

She would protect Nate if it was the last thing she did. The imprint wouldn't have it any other way.

~0~

Leah knew something was wrong the instant she saw Nate again in human form the following week. There weren't any physical marks on him, at least not ones she could see, but for some reason, he wouldn't look her in the eye. He seemed to shy away from her whenever she came within five feet of him, and when he thought she wasn't looking, he would stare at her with questions in his eyes, questions that seemed bigger and heavier than the ones that had been there before.

She didn't know what the problem was, and she couldn't get close enough to him to ask. He stopped hanging out with Claire as well, stopped talking to anyone. Leah got the impression that if he could've, he would have stopped coming to the youth centre altogether.

Fortunately, she learnt from Emily that that wasn't possible. Kyle Green and his tantrums were known to the Port Angeles Police Department, and Nate going to the youth centre was a court ordered sanctum, proof that he was all right and that his father hadn't done anything to him.

Emily said that the only reason he hadn't been removed from his home was because Nate's mother had vouched for his father every time, swearing black and blue that nothing was going on. Leah wanted to slap the bitch as much as she wanted to take out her asshole husband.

It got worse as the weeks went on. Nate retreated further and further into himself and Leah got more and more pissed off. She hated seeing the light leave his eyes. She couldn't remember seeing or hearing anything happen in the week she spent protecting him, so she had no clue what had set this off. All she knew was that her imprint was acting like she was the scum of the earth and it was killing her.

It all came to a head when Nate's father came to the centre again a few weeks later. As she couldn't stand trying to get Nate to talk to her, only to have him curl into himself and pull away, she had volunteered to run out and get a few supplies they had run out of. She was back about ten minutes before she would usually leave, as she'd caught a ride with Jacob that morning and her Alpha would be annoyed if she was late, when she heard a slurred, angry voice and the disgusting scent of unwashed body and alcohol on the wind.

"Brainless little fuck, back-chatting me. Teach you to respect your elders, I will, you ungrateful brat."

There was the crack of a backhand making contact with a cheek, a pained cry accompanying the sound. The instant Leah recognized Nate's voice, she was out of the car and flying into the alley next to the centre, teeth bared as she slammed full force into the beefcake who was hurting her imprint. They fell to the ground, Leah on top of the monster, and without a second thought, she began systematically ploughing her fists into the shithead's face, a continuous rumbling growl pouring from her throat as her wolf howled in approval in her head. Her vision turned a hazy red and her thoughts became a mixture of human and lupine as she continued to break the face of the man under her, hitting him over and over again.

_Fucking prick… mine! Teach you a little something… hurt him! Safe… protect him… keep safe! You'll never hurt anyone again… destroy you! Mine… Nate… must protect!_

"Leah, stop, stop, you have to stop!"

_No, no, take him out, never hurt Nate again, I'll kill him first… yes! Destroy!_

"Leah, _STOP!_"

The Alpha order hit her like a ton of bricks, whipping her body forward and then back again, bloody hands clenching and unclenching before they snapped behind her back. She lurched to her feet and stumbled backwards into the wall, body shuddering and collapsing under her as she fought the order with everything she had. She snarled loudly and tried to pull away further when Jake crouched down in front of her and took her face in his hands.

"Stop. Stop it! Don't make me lay another one on you, because I will if that's what it takes! You can't kill him, Lee, which was what you were getting very close to doing! Do you really want Nate seeing you do that? After what he's already been through?"

Her body slumped as his words got through, and Leah's head shot round to see Nate cringing against the stone of the opposite wall, gaze locked on the blood covering her hands. His eyes were wide and blank and an already forming bruise stood out sharply against the paleness of his cheek. He looked very small and very young and Leah wanted nothing more than to pull him into her arms, wrap him up and keep him safe from anything and everything.

"Let me go," she muttered to her Alpha, pushing against his arms. Jacob watched her closely for another minute, then dropped his hands and stood up. As soon as he'd stepped away, Leah was on her feet and heading towards to Nate.

Her whole world came to a standstill when he scrambled back from her, fear pumping from his pores. His eyes weren't blank anymore.

"Stay away from me!"

_Oh, God, no. Please, no. _

She took a slow, careful step forward, hands stretched out in front of her. "Nate…"

"No!" he shouted, body trembling as his eyes flicked to her hands and away again. "No! You promised! You promised it wouldn't happen again! You're a liar just like everyone else is!"

_Everyone has the right to feel safe, Nate. It won't happen again._

Leah wanted to kick her own ass six ways from Sunday. He lived in an abusive home, for fuck's sake! Like he's going to want to have anything to do with her after she'd just used her fists in much the same way his own father did!

"Shit, Nate, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking, I was just trying to help-"

"I don't need your help! I don't need anyone's help! They're going to take me away now, and my mom's going to be alone, all because of you! You're exactly what he said you were! Stop trying to get your perverted kicks from little kids, and leave me the hell alone!"

The air literally froze in her lungs.

"_What?_"

"He told me you were only paying attention to me because you liked them young and he was right! You have no other reason to want to spent time with me!"

"God, no, Nate, I would never-"

"Shut up! You lied! I won't let you do whatever it is you plan to do, you sick freak! Go away and never come back, I don't ever want to see you again!"

The words were like sharp, pointed barbs, piercing her skin and pulverising her heart. A muted, pressurized buzzing began in her ears, blocking everything else out, and she stared hollowly at her angry little imprint, tears running down his face as he threw accusations with hate in his eyes. He thought… he thought… she swallowed, throat swelling, her wolf's mournful howl echoing through her mind. He never wanted to see her again. He hated her.

_Her imprint hated her._

The world narrowed to that one thought and Leah took a step backward, and then another, until her back was pressed against the wall again. There was hurried movement all around her, the police and ambulance service had shown up, Emily and Claire were running to Nate's side, Jake was trying to talk to her, but she felt and heard nothing. All she could see, all she could _breathe,_ was the fury, disgust and betrayal – _sweet Jesus, the betrayal –_ pumping off the nine-year-old boy being led away from her. He hated her. Nate hated her and didn't want to ever see her again.

Straightening as those words lodged like a hook in her heart, Leah made a split second decision. She'd always felt horrible over not giving her imprint the choice about whether she was in his life or not. Now, though, it seems that he did have that choice. He'd made it with loud, painful shouts.

_Go away and never come back, I don't ever want to see you again!_

The imprint would be whatever the imprintee needed. Nate didn't want her next to him, he wanted her gone. Nate _needed_ her gone. So go she would.

She would give Nate the choices she had taken away the moment a force beyond her control had bound her soul to his. She would let him grow up without her constantly hovering in the background, influencing every part of his life. She would let him live that life without her around, let him become the man he was always meant to be.

Even if it destroyed her in the process.


	3. Chapter 3

**Choices**

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but I do own all the angst I'm putting Leah through.

**Chapter Three**

_Even if it destroyed her in the process. _

* * *

"You're making a mistake."

Leah ignored the large form of her Alpha leaning against the door jamb and continued to pack up her clothes and the few things she'd brought with her when her pack had come home. He'd arrived at her mother's house about ten minutes after Emily had dropped her off, and he hadn't left her side since. It was beginning to crack through her hard-come-by rationality. How was she supposed to stick to her decision to leave when the dick wouldn't stop going on about it being the _wrong_ decision?

Her head knew that what she was doing was the right thing. She was trying her best to ignore her heart and her gut, which were screaming at her, repeating over and over that she was about to make the biggest blunder of her life. It was a sentiment Jake seemed to agree with.

Then again, he was with his imprint and couldn't be happier. Of course he'd be against someone taking the other fork in the road.

"Lee? Will you stop and listen to me please? You can't just leave."

"Can't I?" Leah said as calmly as possible, turning away from her bed and scanning the room, checking to see if she'd forgotten anything. "Why not? There's nothing more for me here."

"Bullshit," Jacob growled, pulling away from the door. "Your family is here, your pack is here, and Nate is here. You're willing to throw all that away at the first hurdle?"

"Being accused of being a paedophile is a fucking big hurdle, Jake!" she snapped, whirling on him as her anger bubbled up. "Nate hates me! He thinks I want to put hands on him, in more ways than one!"

"He didn't mean that, Leah, he was just upset and he took it out on the closest person!"

"Oh, so I imagined the way he's been pulling away from me for the last few weeks?" the she-wolf asked sarcastically, folding her arms and raising a brow pointedly. "I read the signs wrong and he pulled those words out of his ass, out of the blue?"

"You _know_ who put those words in his mouth, Lee! They came straight from his fucker of a father! Nate really doesn't think that at all!"

Leah sighed and turned back to her duffle, closing it and shoving it over her shoulder. She met Jacob's eyes squarely as she turned around again, anger and worry forced down once more. "It doesn't matter that that prick put the idea in his head in the first place, he believed it. I never, _never, _gave him any reason to believe that I would treat him that way, and yet with a few words, he acts like I'm a dangerous criminal."

Jacob blinked and realization ran through his eyes. "You're hurt."

"My feelings don't matter. They don't," she insisted with a frown when he snorted. "Nate's the only one who matters here. He told me to go away, that he never wanted to see me again. He made his choice and I'm just doing what he wants me to do. Isn't that the nature of the imprint?"

"Not when you turn things around so that they suit you," Jacob answered with a frown of his own. "It sounds like to me that you're using the way things played out to your advantage. I know you didn't want to imprint, Leah, but if you walk away from this, you'll not only be hurting yourself, you'll be hurting Nate as well."

Leah sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Once again, it isn't about me. Nate deserves a chance to live a happy, normal life, without a predestined soul mate hanging around, influencing every part of that life. He deserves to live the life he would have lived if the imprint had never happened. He deserves to grow up and fall in love with the person _he_ chose, not someone the supernatural blood in my veins chose for him. I just want him to be happy, Jake. If I leave, he will be."

"What's to say he won't be happy with you?" her Alpha argued. "What's to say he won't be _happiest_ with you?"

"He won't be," she replied firmly, walking over to the door and brushing passed him, making her way down the stairs. The house was empty apart from her and Jacob, something she was grateful for. Her mother was at work and Seth was out patrolling. This was hard enough already, she didn't think she'd be able to walk out the front door if her family were home, pleading with her not to go.

"You can't know that," Jacob said as he followed her, his steps almost silent, contradicting the size of his body.

"Yes, I can."

"Oh? Did you suddenly develop a physic gift out of nowhere or something? I thought you didn't like Alice? Imitation is the highest form of flattery, you know."

"No, I haven't suddenly decided to copy the crazy little imp, you jerk," Leah muttered, glowering at him over her shoulder as they walked into the kitchen. She rolled her eyes at his smirk. "I just know what I saw in Nate's eyes. He'll never be happy with me, not after what I did."

"What you did? What did you do?" Jacob asked, snagging a leg of chicken from the fridge when his Beta pulled it open to grab a few supplies. Her mother wouldn't mind. In fact, if she were there and wasn't trying to tie Leah to a chair, Sue would be insisting her daughter take more.

"What did I do?" the she-wolf repeated as she threw her Alpha an incredulous look. "I broke my promise, Jacob! I made him feel unsafe, beat his father to a bloody pulp, and destroyed his family, all in one shot!" She slumped into a chair and stared down at her now-healed hands, still seeing the blood she'd already washed away. "He hates me, but because of the imprint, he'll want to be around me, which will breed resentment. Then, later, when he gets older, it'll probably turn into more, and that resentment will grow threefold. He'll love me but hate me, and that isn't what I'd call the healthiest relationship, for either party involved."

She only just stopped herself from raising her hand and rubbing it between her breasts, the ache in her chest pulsing like a heartbeat and growing steadily. It hurt to even _think_ about Nate not wanting anything to do with her. She couldn't imagine how much it would hurt if she stuck around and he threw his intense dislike for her company in her face every chance he got… no. She wasn't going to think like that. That wasn't the reason why she was leaving. She was leaving so that Nate would have a chance to be happy. Her feelings didn't matter one iota. He was all that was important here.

"Okay, so let's break that down, shall we?" Jacob said, getting up and chucking the chicken bone in the rubbish, letting out a belch as he turned around again. Leah rolled her eyes. He may be her Alpha, but he still acted like the teenage boy she'd gotten to know when she'd first phased. "You say you broke your promise. Maybe you did."

"There's no maybe about it."

"But that doesn't mean you can't make up for it and he can't forgive you," he continued as if she hadn't spoken at all. "Everyone makes mistakes, and besides, I wouldn't really call you ripping into his father a mistake. That shithead deserved every punch he got."

"I agree, but me ripping into that shithead broke up Nate's family-"

"His _family?_" Jake spluttered. "That fucker is as far from a family man as you can get!"

"His mom, Jacob," Leah said wearily, watching as her Alpha's face pulled into a grimace of understanding. "They take Nate away, the best thing for him, but it means she's alone with her husband when he gets out of the hospital. Nate is never going to forgive me for putting his mother in greater danger. And to top all that off, I hurt someone the way his father had been hurting him and his mother. Someone he felt safe with proved that she's no better than the man who's probably been using his fists on him for years. How can he trust me now?"

Jacob was silent for a long moment, his face twisted in thought, brows pulled down. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again, a look of annoyance flashing through his dark eyes. Leah smiled slightly in amusement as he tried to figure his way around her argument. He clearly wasn't having any luck.

"No matter which way you look at it, Jacob, it all comes out in the deep end of shit creek. Leaving is the best thing for everyone."

"You can rebuild trust, though," Jake said a little desperately as she stood and re-hooked the bag over her shoulder.

"Not at this level of losing it. And what happens when I lose my temper next time? Do I re-build the trust I may or may not have already gained back? Plus, he'll have to find out about the packs and my wolf sooner or later, and I guarantee he'll think I kept it from him deliberately, which won't help with the issue of trust, will it?"

"You've really thought about this," Jacob sighed. Leah raised a brow at him.

"Of course I have. You think I'd do something this massive on a whim? I had a lot of time to think sitting in that police station while Chief Swan talked me out of an assault charge. There are as many cons as there are pros and I'm trying to think this all through as calmly and rationally as possible."

"Not working, is it?" her Alpha asked after a moment as he stared at how tightly she was gripping the strap of her duffle, the knuckles on her hand white. Leah followed his gaze and quickly released the material, shaking out her hand to relieve the tingling. She glared down at her betraying fingers and headed for the door, not looking at the man who had turned out to be one of her closest friends.

"Are you really sure you want to do this? I can't convince you to stay?"

"Yes, I am, and no, you can't."

Jacob sighed.

"All right. So, where will you go?" he asked as he once again followed her. Leah set her sight on the front door, determined to walk through and be gone.

"Seattle for a start," she answered as she stepped out onto the sagging porch, silently thankful that he was no longer protesting. It was her decision, after all. Jacob wasn't the kind of person to stop someone from doing what they chose to do, especially if they believed in it so forcibly. "After that, who knows? Where the need to earn a living takes me, I guess."

"You do know that you don't have to do this alone. The pack could go with you."

Leah stopped abruptly and turned, facing her Alpha, who was watching her closely. Meeting his eyes, she could instantly tell that he meant it. If she asked him to, he'd uproot his pack, moving them from the original home they'd managed to settle back into. His Beta's imprint hadn't been the only reason why the Black Pack had stayed in the area. All of his wolves had grown up here, and no matter how far they travelled, whom they encountered and what had happened to get them to leave in the first place, the La Push reservation would always be in their blood and in their hearts.

It was home. Always had been, always would be.

The she-wolf shocked the hell out of Jacob when she stepped closer, leaned up on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you. Thank you for not judging and for always being there, supporting us and lending an ear when we need it. Thank you for thinking of others before you think of yourself. Thank you for letting me go, even when you think it's a mistake. But most of all, thank you for not forcing me to stay."

Jacob blinked a couple of times and Leah smirked slightly when his head dropped, his cheeks reddened and he scuffed the dirt with the toe of his shoe.

"Jeez, Lee, I'm just doing my job," he muttered awkwardly, embarrassment pumping off him in waves. Leah laughed.

"Yeah, but you're a damn sight better at it than Sam ever was. No, Jake, you stay. Nessie's found a home here and the rest of the pack has settled back in as well. I'll be fine."

Her Alpha muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like "I'm not so sure about that," but he nodded anyway, following again when Leah turned back to her truck and opened the door. She threw her duffle onto the passenger seat and slid in.

"I want to know the instant you settled somewhere," he ordered as she closed the door and wound down the window. "If I don't, I'll send Seth after you. You know he'll want to follow the instant he learns you're gone, and you're well aware how irritatingly persistent he can be."

Leah rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the guilt roiling in her stomach over leaving without saying goodbye to her family. "I will, don't worry."

"And know that we'll be here the instant you want to come back."

"I won't be coming back," she muttered, determined to stick to her guns. She turned the key in the ignition and looked at her Alpha, ignoring the worry in his gaze, as well as ball of emotion that had suddenly lodged itself in her throat.

_Don't fall apart now, if he sees you break, he use it to get you to stay. Just go, Leah. Go!_

"See ya, Jake," she said in a rough voice, hand on the window winder. Jacob stopped her winding it up by resting his palm on top of the glass.

"Remember what I said, Lee. The instant you decide to stop running, we'll all be waiting here for you, Nate included."

"I'm not running."

Jacob shook his head. "Yes, you are. But that's okay, I know the feeling. You can't run your whole life, and if you try, you may just find someone running after you. Better go now if you don't want to hit traffic."

The she-wolf stared stupidly at the man who tapped the roof of her truck and then stepped back, wondering when the hell he'd grown up and how the hell she'd missed it. No, that wasn't right. Jacob Black had grown up the moment he'd accepted the fact that he was Alpha of his own pack. She just hadn't wanted to see it, to acknowledge that someone three years younger than her, and a teenage boy to boot, was acting far more mature than someone who was classified as more woman than girl.

She watched him for a moment and then faced front again, pressing her foot to the gas pedal. Risked only one glance back, she caught Jacob waving in the rear-view mirror, and then hurriedly looked back at the road as her eyes stung and that ball of emotion swelled.

_Don't. Not yet. Wait 'til you're far enough away that you can't justify turning back. Wait 'til Seattle._

Leah pretended she was fine until she came out the other side of Port Angeles. It was as if the imprint knew she was leaving, passing over some sort of invisible line, moving steadily away from her home - _Nate_ - her family - _Nate - _her pack, and the boy she was tied to eternally, because it all suddenly became too much for her. The ache flared hot and brutal in her chest, carving out her insides until she felt hollow and empty and dizzy and where the fuck did all the air go? Her breath caught in her throat and her heart pounded so hard, it felt like it shook the truck. Her hands clenched on the wheel and the truck served as her vision blurred.

_Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, Nate, shit, I can't, Nate, shit, it hurts, Nate, shit, Jesus, fuck, fuck, fuck!_

Using the last of her control, Leah pulled the truck over to the side of the road and wrenched the door open, throwing herself out and landing on the grass on her knees. She sucked in breath after breath as her lungs screamed for air, body shaking like she was on the brink of phasing. She probably was. Her wolf was howling and raging in her head, the sound mixing in her panicked thoughts and the pain cutting her chest open with a blunt, rusty blade. She stared down at the ground blindly as shudder upon shudder wracked through her, the hook pulling so violently it was nauseating, but somehow, she stayed right where she was. She didn't phase and run back to Nate, she didn't get back in the truck and head back to Port Angeles and then La Push, she stayed kneeling in the grass and shaking, the wet seeping through her jeans.

"Miss? Hey, you okay? Do I need to call someone for you?"

The voice cut through her shrieking panic like a gunshot and Leah's head whipped around, teeth bared. The man who had spoken took an instinctive step backwards at the look on her face, and it was the uneasiness that boarded on fear in his eyes that helped her complete what his voice had started. Her panic and that unforgiving ache didn't fade, but with the real world intruding, she was able to focus on that rather than the feeling of her heart shredding into tiny pieces.

"A-ah, miss?"

"I'm fine," she croaked, clearing her throat but not yet attempting to get to her feet.

"You sure?"

"Yes. Thank you for stopping, but I'm okay. I was just… looking for my contact. Found it now, so you can go."

The man shot her a disbelieving look, one she fully deserved, and then nodded slowly.

"All right. I'll just stay until you get back on the road. Can't be too careful."

Leah gritted her teeth, annoyed at the absurd do-gooder, but also grateful for him at the same time. His presence forced her to suck it up and pull herself together. So, using the techniques Rosalie had taught her about controlling her anger and other strong emotions, she took hold of the horrible, black sensations sitting heavily her chest and compartmentalized them. She couldn't stop herself feeling them, that was entirely impossible, but she did succeed in pushing them back and under, putting them in a box until she could pull them out and sort through them later, when she was more able to handle them. It took a shit load of effort, and for a moment she didn't think she was going to achieve it, but finally Leah managed to get to her feet and send the too-helpful stranger a strained smile, before heading back to the open door of her truck.

Starting the engine that had died as she'd put herself back together, the she-wolf slowly pulled back onto the road. She glared out the front window and folded her lips in irritation as she drove. This was why she was leaving. She'd just had an emotional breakdown on the side of the road because she was taking herself out of the life of a nine-year-old who wasn't even related to her, for God's sake!

It was too much. Too big, too intense for a kid to deal with, especially when he already had massive amounts to deal with anyway. It wasn't healthy. If she stayed, she'd screw his even more up than he already was, and she wasn't going to do that. She refused to do that.

Jacob may think she was running, but Nate was the whole reason, the be all and end all, and she would do anything, _anything_, to see that he got to live the life he deserved. If that meant that she had to live with a constant ache in her chest, then so be it.

The imprint seemed to read her mind again, and as Leah put more and more distance between her and the boy the legends said was her destiny, the ache blossomed and grew the further away she drove.

* * *

**A/N - As there seems to be a lot more story to tell than I thought there was going to be, I've decided to I'll extend this fic. It's still going to be short, but we're now probably looking at five chapters instead of the original three. Thank you everyone for reading, please know that I do appreciate all of your amazing feedback, and keep letting me know what you think! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Choices**

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, except the plot. Which means the not nothing is mine, doesn't it?

**Chapter Four**

_The imprint seemed to read her mind again, and as Leah put more and more distance between her and the boy the legends said was her destiny, the ache blossomed and grew the further away she drove._

* * *

To say it was hard was the biggest understatement imaginable. It was horrendous. By the time Leah got to Seattle, it felt like she was literally falling apart. She was hyperventilating, her hands were trembling on the steering wheel and sweat was trickling steadily down her forehead, pooling in her ears and the dip of her collarbone. Pulling into the first motel she saw, she threw the door open before the engine had even stopped, tumbling from the cab for the second time that day, dragging in huge lungful's of air as her chest squeezed her heart like a vice. Her vision faded in and out and her stomach roiled and twisted, forming thick, greasy knots of stress and anxiety. It was as though she was physically sick, horrifically sick, and all because she was stubbornly not doing what her ancestors, her tribe, her heart, her very _blood_ was telling her to do.

_It's not about me!_ she roared in her head, once more staring blindly at the wet grass she was all but curled up on. _It's never been about me! It's about him, it's about Nate and what's best for him! Stop trying to punish me for doing what the imprint is all about!_

She had no clue who she was yelling at, or if there was even anyone listening. It didn't matter anyway, as none of her phantom symptoms settled down even a little. After God knows how long, the she-wolf clenched her teeth and managed to pull herself to her feet, reaching for her duffle and closing the door of her truck. She then turned and walked – more like staggered – over to the office of the dingiest little motel she'd ever set eyes on. She secured herself a room from the unwashed, twitchy man behind the desk – who only spared her the briefest glance and didn't seem to at all care that his guest was leaving a puddle of sweat on the dirty lino floor – dragged her abused body up the stairs and unlocked the door, collapsing onto the bed with a somewhat relieved sigh.

That night was far from the best night of Leah's life. She slept very little, and when she did, it was in short, thirty minute bursts filled with strange, incoherent dreams that left her waking with a disconcerting feeling of loss. The time she spent awake was filled with concentrating on physically stopping herself from getting up and running back to Port Angles as fast as she could, as well as battling the shockingly strong flu-like symptoms she'd had no clue she was going to have to put up with in the first place. As a result, she woke the next morning with eyelids that felt like anvils, a thumping headache and anger pulsing through her veins, pulling her mouth into a furious snarl. Shooting the disgusting room a pissy glare, she got up and headed out to hand in her key, more than thrilled to move on. Intellectually, she knew that she would have felt just as bad in a five star hotel, but that still didn't stop her from kicking the rickety dresser on the way to the door.

It didn't get any better. She had no idea why she was feeling this bad this early, as she hadn't really felt anything when she'd first imprinted until about a week later, and that had only been a slight compressing of her lungs. This was far beyond that. The hook in her centre felt like it was trying to pull her inside out, and as more time passed, and Leah found a room in a cheap apartment and a job behind the bar in a worn little pub, the feeling only grew.

The first month she slept very little and ate even less. Food held little interest to her, most of the time she just ended up bringing it back up anyway, and no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't sleep more than half an hour at a time. The only reason she kept her job was because her boss didn't care what she looked like when she came in, as long as she came in in the first place. It was a horrible time and it was only her determination to give Nate the life he deserved that kept her from running home as fast as her shaky legs could carry her.

As per her orders, she kept in contact with Jake and her family, texting her Alpha every week or two to let him know she was alive and okay. The she-wolf wasn't able to get off that lightly with her mother, however. Sue had been far from happy when she'd come home to her son shouting at his Alpha and her daughter's room cleared out, with said daughter nowhere to be found. Leah had spent an hour on the phone that night, listening to her mother as she switched between yelling at her and trying to convince her to come home. She'd eventually hung up with her ears ringing and the headache that seemed to be her constant companion pulsing behind her temples. Sue rang once a week after that, and Leah got emails twice a week from Seth.

It was her little brother that first let her know what was happening with her imprint and Child Protection Services.

His messages always began with a cheery little greeting and an overview of what was happening on the reservation, before rambling on about whatever issue that two packs were dealing with at the time. Leah smiled and shook her head through most of them, but it was the one that she got two weeks after she left that threw her into a tailspin.

_Oh, by the way, Emily's convinced CPS to let Nate come stay with her and Sam. Talk to ya next week, sis!_

Leah stared at the words on the screen, gobsmacked. _What the fuck? _It was the first time she answered her brother immediately after he'd sent the email.

_What? What the hell are you talking about? He's not supposed to be around the packs, Seth! He's not supposed to have anything to do with that! Why the fuck do you think I left?_

Her reply came back just as quick.

_Ha, thought that would get your attention. Just because you left, doesn't make your imprint any less part of your pack, Lee. He's yours, so he's a member of our family, which basically makes Emily as much of a cousin to him as she is to us. Plus, she's legally allowed to take in foster children, and since he already knows her and Claire really well, it wasn't that hard. She's working on trying to convince Nate's mom to come stay on the reservation as well, Mom's offered her a job at the bakery and everything. She's dithering a bit, which Emily says is normal for someone in her situation, but we think that she's slowly coming around. Seeing Nate sort of happy is helping quite a lot._

Leah blinked in bemusement, the words slowly processing their way through her brain. Both Nate _and_ his mother living on the reservation? Did that mean she'd left his fath- hold on a minute.

_Sort of happy? What do you mean he's only sort of happy?_

This time the reply took a lot longer in coming.

_Do I really need to answer that question, sis? He looks up expectantly every time the door opens, and when it's never the person he hopes it's going to be, his face falls before settling into a kind of blank mask. It's painful to watch. Are you completely sure you did the right thing?_

The she-wolf's lips formed a thin, hard line as her heart ached and stuttered. She ran a trembling hand through her hair as she stared at the computer, too many emotions to name blasting through her. God, why did it have to be this _hard?_ She was just trying to do what was best for everyone! With that thought in mind, she quickly typed and sent her answer back, keeping it short and right to the point.

_Yes._

Not a minute later, Seth came back with his reply.

_You can't even stay in contact with him?_

Nate cringing back against the dirty concrete wall and shouting at her flashed before her mind's eye. Leah swallowed heavily and typed.

_No. I'm tired, Seth. Talk to you next week._

She got up from the computer, only to turn back when it chirped to let her know her brother had sent a reply.

_Shit, you're stubborn, Lee. Well, at least you know where he is if you ever get your head out of your ass. Love you, sis, forever and always. _

He ended it with a smiley and Leah went to bed with a smile of her own, steadfastly ignoring the ache that seemed to have invaded her very bones. She knew what she was doing. Eventually, her family would accept that as well.

~0~

Leah stayed in Seattle for two months before she even gave thought of moving on. It wasn't her crappy job or her tiny room that finally convinced her to get further the hell out of dodge. It was her wolf and the fact that the animal was _really_ not pleased with her and her recent decisions.

Before the imprint, Leah's wolf had always been a slightly separate entity in her head, feeding off her emotions and acting accordingly, but it had never had any control over her and it had never swayed any of her thoughts or actions. Not even when she let it out. Now, however, was a completely different story.

She tried to stay in human form for as long as she could, because although she knew that the pack mind couldn't possibly stretch that far, she also really didn't want to take the chance. Things had changed within the pack over the years, and all of its members were now able to keep to themselves whatever they wanted to keep to themselves – hence why Leah had had no clue who Embry had been pining over. Nevertheless, put them all together and aim them all at one goal, and you definitely had a force to be reckoned with. Leah just didn't want to deal with them forming one very determined pack mind and _reaching_ for her. She couldn't handle it. So, she'd hadn't phased since she'd left La Push and she'd been quite happy with that.

That is until her wolf decided to stop playing around and took the choice out of her hands.

It was like getting hit by a freight train. Leah bulleted up in bed in the middle of the night, gasping for breath as her heart slammed in her chest and her wolf bayed in her head. The shrieking, eerie sound went on and on, filling her mind and drowning everything else out, until her hands flew up to cover her ears as she gritted her teeth in pain. Her wolf had been unusually passive up until then, just sitting back and letting her suffer through the supernatural flu the imprint was punishing her with, so it coming barrelling out all of a sudden took Leah completely by surprise. She clutched at her head, her scream coming out in a thin, keening moan, and then her body was abruptly moving, hurtling out of the bed and out into the street.

It didn't matter that they were in the middle of human-packed city. It didn't matter that there was nowhere to escape if they were seen, if they were _caught._ All that mattered was that the wolf was doing exactly what it wanted to do, disregarding its human counterpart completely. It was coming and it made that painfully clear, ripping its way through Leah's skin and clothes, bursting out of its cage and causing as much pain as it could to the one who had locked it up, who had kept it away from its other half, the one it was meant for. Leah screamed in agony as her body twisted and arched, the high pitch screech mixing in with the sounds of the city…

…then they were down on all fours and _running._

The only female wolf in her pack had always been the fastest. She was the smallest and the lightest, so it made sense that she could get up to a fairly decent speed. What didn't make sense was that they were half way back to Port Angeles before Leah could even begin to comprehend what was going on. When it finally clicked, when the pain finally faded and she began to think past the fact that her wolf had taken over and had made the change hurt as much as it had the very first time, she slowly began to take in her surroundings. The very first thing she noticed was that, though she was running, she wasn't the one moving her limbs.

The wolf was. And no matter how hard she tried, how hard she struggled, there wasn't a single thing she could do about it.

_What? No. Where are you going? How…?_

Trees began to flash by, the scenery becoming achingly familiar. If Leah had had any control, her eyes would have bugged out in understanding.

_No! Stop! You can't!_

Her struggles picking up, the she-wolf shoved and strained against the unmovable animal force taking them closer and closer to the very last place she wanted to be.

Taking her closer to him.

_Stop, stop, listen to me, you can't! We can't! Please stop!_

_~Want him.~_

Reeling back inside her mind, Leah stopped struggling for a minute and gaped.

_What? Who…?_

_~Want him. Needs us.~_

They weren't full sentences, but the disjointed words were definitely coming from the animal she was fighting with. Leah blinked in disbelief. She didn't… what… _how?_

_~Needs us. Will go. Needs us.~_

The more she concentrated, the more Leah realized that they weren't words so much as emotions. The wolf was doing what she'd been determinedly _not_ doing. It was responding to the imprint's call. And since it didn't seem to comprehend anything apart from the most basic human thoughts and feelings, it just didn't understand why Leah had made her choice in the first place.

Letting out a growl of frustration, the she-wolf resumed her struggles. If the wolf didn't understand, then she'd just have to _make_ it understand!

_Stop, this isn't right! We left for a reason! His life will be far better without us in it!_

_~Needs us.~_

_He does not! We will ruin him!_

_~Needs us. Protect him!~_

With those thoughts came picture upon picture of Nate's father looming over him, Nate's father hitting him, Nate's father hurting him. The wolf snarled in their head and picked up even more speed, while Leah reeled once more, fighting against her own need to protect and save the kid who had become her entire world. Taking a few deep breaths, she pushed down the instinctive reaction and continued trying to make the wolf see reason.

_He's not with his father anymore, other humans took him away. He's with Pack. Pack will keep him safe._

The wolf snarled again and shook its head in an almost human-like movement, denial swamping them both.

_~Ours! Protect ours! Not theirs, ours!~_

_Yes, he is, but being in his life at the moment will do more harm than good! He deserves to grow up free of any outside influence, he deserves to grow up and live the life he wants to live! Look at what we'll do to him if we go back!_

Bringing up her own pictures, Leah showed the wolf the way Nate had been cringing away from them in fear, the betrayal and pain in his voice, the disbelief and shock he was bound to feel when he found out about Leah's wolf, the betrayal at being lied to _again_. She showed it – _her,_ the thoughts were definitely coming from a female – feelings and emotions growing and transforming as he got older, not being able to love who _he_ wanted to love, the resentment sparking from that, and the hate building steadily under the love. She showed her the way the imprint would destroy who he is and wouldn't let him be who he's supposed to be. And finally, most importantly, she showed her the way it would ultimately tear all three of them apart, mentally and emotionally, while not giving them the chance to part physically. The wolf whimpered at the images and her paws faulted for a moment, just as they shot past Port Angeles and quickly came up on Forks.

_~No!~_

_Yes! We will do that to him! He needs to live a life without us in it. He'll be safe with Pack and he can grow up happy and healthy and choose his own path. That is the reason I left in the first place!_

The wolf whined and stumbled, the speed it was travelling at making it seem like it was weaving drunkenly. Leah gritted her teeth and _pushed_, the wolf growling and beginning to run again as they fought for control.

_~Needs us!~_

_Oh, for God's sake, shut the fuck up and listen to me, you mangy animal! What he needs is something we can't give him! Returning will only hurt him! I won't let myself ruin him, and I definitely will NOT let you do it either!_

She pushed again, pushed and pulled and _wrenched_, and the wolf howled as Leah threw everything she had behind the tussle.

_~Protect him!~_

_I AM protecting him! I'm protecting him from US! STOP THIS!_

The trees streaked by and the wolf howled again, the sound exploding from its throat and cutting through the air like a rusty, ragged blade. Leah bared her teeth, let out her own snarl-like howl and pushed, pulled, wrenched, _shoved…_

…then tumbled jaws over paws as the wolf abruptly relented.

_~Keep him safe. Protect him.~_

Hitting the ground with a surprised huff, Leah lay on the forest floor, finally back in control of her own body. The relief she felt was almost painful. She closed her eyes, feeling the wolf's eyelids do what she wanted them to do, and didn't move a muscle as her wolf sunk back down inside her with a whimper and something that sounded a lot like an accepting sigh.

_Oh, thank God. Thank you. Thank you. You won't regret… thank you._

_Leah, is that you? Are you back? Who are you thanking? I can't believe it's you!_

The excited ramble from a very young wolf named Justin spiked through Leah's head, and it was then that she realized exactly how close her wolf had brought them to the reservation. The hook in her gut was yanking at her, telling her that he was here, he was only a few miles away, she could see him if she only took off loping once more. It was this thought that got her up onto her paws and had her sprinting away in the opposite direction.

It was easy, far too easy to just give in. To just let the imprint do what it wanted her to do. To step back into his life and convince him to forgive her, to embrace everything they could be if she just gave that life a chance. It was easy, yes, very easy, but it was also very wrong, and she wasn't going to do it. She wasn't.

The hook's yanking made her whine as she ran, but she still kept going, and two days later saw Leah throw her duffle into her truck again. She was too close to him, so she would move on, where it would be harder to run back that quickly if her wolf ever managed to take her over again, though it didn't look like it was going to. The wolf's presence seemed greatly reduced since her episode, but Leah couldn't bring herself to care. It was easier that way, and the she-wolf drove out of Seattle without a backwards glance, determined to move on with her life.

She ignored the thought niggling at the back of her mind that it wasn't much of a life without her imprint in it.

~0~

Leah settled into Portland, Oregon, once again steadfastly ignoring the blip in her heart that refused to let her go any further. Portland was as good a city as any anyway. Having saved a little money while in Seattle, she was able to afford a bit more of an upperclass style of accommodation, choosing a tiny apartment in the middle of the city all of her own. She soon secured a job in a bar and sat back to get on with her life.

Slowly, time moved on and the years passed. Leah existed more than anything else, filling her days with routine and learning to live with the constant hollow, empty feeling in her chest, an aching that never really went away. Fortunately, the physical symptoms disappeared after a while, but she still couldn't sleep much, choosing instead to spend most of her nights taking correspondence courses at the local community college. She didn't want to be a bartender all her life, even if she did enjoy the atmosphere and the regulars.

Nate was thirteen when everything flipped on its head once more. She still kept in regular contact with her family and her pack, so she knew that about four months after she'd left, Emily had finally managed to convince Nate's mother to leave his father for good and move down to the reservation. Nate was living with his mother now, which Leah was very pleased about, and neither of the packs had seen hide nor hair of his father. This was good, very good. He was living his own life, without her hovering in the background constantly, influencing who he was and who he was going to turn out to be. Since he was there, she hadn't been back to La Push, as she knew that if she went back, she'd probably would never leave again. She hadn't seen anyone in her pack apart from Jacob and Seth since then either.

So, to look up one evening and see Embry walking through the doors of her place of employment, knocked her completely for a six.

She stopped dead, the cloth she was using to clean up a spilt drink skidding to a halt, jaw dropping at the sight of her pack mate casually taking a seat at the far end of the bar. He hadn't looked in her direction, but he must have known she was there. How could he not? A shifter's senses were keen, even if hers weren't as good as they used to be. With only phasing when she absolutely had no choice, the wolf had faded down inside of her quite a bit more, taking most of her enhanced senses with it. It was still there, as was the imprint, it was just… _less. _Leah was quite content that it was.

She stared at him, jolting into movement only when a patron touched her arm and asked if she was okay. Embry still hadn't looked up, and after reassuring the regular that she was fine, Leah took a couple of steadying breaths and crossed the floor towards him. There was no way she could get out of at least greeting him. He was pack, which made him family.

You never turned away from family.

_Isn't that what you did to Nate?_ a little voice whispered in the back of her mind as she made her way back behind the bar and took over making the drink she'd seen Embry order. Leah grimaced and ignored it, walking over and placing the drink in front of her old pack mate.

"Thanks," the wolf said, still not looking away from the menu he was perusing. Leah grinned, leaned down and quickly swiped a sip from the glass, making Embry's head snap up in shock.

"Hey, what do you… Leah? Lee!"

He sprang from his seat and all but threw himself across the bar, chin-length black hair flying as he picked her up and swung her around in an exuberant hug. Laughter bubbled from the she-wolf's throat at his enthusiasm.

"Damn it, Call, put me down! I'm working here!"

"Shit, Leah, I can't believe it's you!" he crowed as he did as he was told, grinning at her. "Where the hell have you been? You look amazing!"

Leah snorted and rolled her eyes at that, knowing very well that she looked far from her best, but Embry just continued to grin. He'd matured a little more in the years since she'd seen him last, though he hadn't bulked up all that much as Jake tended to do. Embry's face had hollowed somewhat, his features becoming more refined, and if she had to guess, she'd say that his body had become leaner and more toned, his muscles still there, but whippy and understated compared to the rest of his pack mates. He looked good, really good, and Leah found herself giving him an appreciative onceover.

_Embry Call, truly all grown up. Very nice. Who would have thought?_

Her eyes shot back to his when he chuckled under his breath, the sound low and deep, pleasing on the ear. Leah scowled at him playfully and pointed at his seat.

"You're on the wrong side, buddy. Back you go, or I may have to make you."

Her eyes widened when Embry cocked his head and sent her a slow, teasing smile. "Make me? Maybe I like it here."

_Holy shit, is he flirting with me?_

The mischievous little twinkle in his dark eyes said that, yes, he definitely was. Something fluttered in Leah's belly as a thrill ran down her spine, making her frown in confusion. She got flirted with all the time, it came with the job, but this was the first time she'd actually enjoyed it. And from Embry Call of all people! When the hell did _he_ learn how to flirt? That had always been Quil's area of expertise before he'd imprinted, not his best friend's!

"That doesn't mean a thing, Call. This isn't the place for you, bucko, back you go," she said, pointing at his seat again. Embry smiled at her, shook his head and then clambered back over the bar, making Leah wince and quickly check to see if her boss was around. This one was a lot more on the ball than her one back in Seattle had been.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asked him once he was back in his seat. Embry took a sip from his drink and peered at her over the rim.

"I live here, Lee. Got offered a better job about two months ago. There was nothing but pack keeping me in La Push, and Jake was all good with me going since there's so many of us now, so I took it. Didn't realize you lived here as well. How long you been in Portland?"

They chatted for a while before Leah had to get back to doing what she was paid to do, but they did keep talking throughout the night, and the longer the night went on, the more confused Leah became. Embry was constantly smiling at her and sending her flirty little glances, touching her as much as he could in the process. Leah didn't have a clue what to make of it, or of her own reaction to it either. Her heart rate had picked up, nerves knotting in her stomach, and her skin tingled whenever he innocently brushed his fingers over the back of her hand. Going by the smug little grin Embry was hiding behind his hands every once in the while, the jerk knew it, too. It was frustrating and bewildering and it was freaking her the fuck out.

She had an imprint, for God's sake! She wasn't supposed to be reacting this way! She wasn't supposed to be imagining Embry lying on her bed with his shirt open, hands behind his head as he grinned up at her in invitation! Why was she feeling like this? Jake had never even _thought_ of looking at anyone else when Nessie was growing up, and she was pretty positive that Quil wasn't out searching for a fuck buddy to pass the time either! It didn't make sense, why was she-

"Lee?"

She jolted when Embry said her name, blinking as she noticed that it was almost closing time and the wolf was only one of a few people left in the bar. He'd stayed the entire time, hours longer than she was sure he'd planned on staying, talking and laughing with her, the smile on his face and the look in his eyes flustering her completely. He wasn't flirting with her now, though. Concern was shining from his gaze.

"Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine," Leah answered abruptly, turning away and beginning the process of closing. "You should probably go, we'll be closing soon."

"Yeah, probably, but you mentioned that you live close, so I thought I'd walk you home."

The she-wolf let out a humourless laugh, still not looking at him. "I'm a big girl, Call, I can handle a ten minute walk."

"Oh, I know that," Embry replied cheerfully. "That's why I want the company. This city can be scary at night, you know."

Leah swung back around and stared at the wolf in disbelief, finding Embry grinning at her with his chin resting on his hand, elbow on the bar. He raised a brow and shrugged at the look she was sending him.

"What? You're my Beta, aren't you? It's your job to protect me!"

The words 'Beta' and 'protect' hit Leah right in the gut, making the smile the younger wolf had just managed to put back on his pack mate's face fall once more. She heard Embry sigh when she turned away from him again, but he didn't move, just sat there and watched her shoo away the last of the stragglers, empty the till and close the place up. He was silent right up until she closed the back door behind her, locking it and heading out into the dark with Embry following.

"I know what you're thinking," he eventually said, the soft murmured shattering the silence. Leah kept walking and didn't reply.

"You do know that he'd want you to be happy, don't you? Nate is-"

"Don't say his name!" Leah snapped, rounding on him angrily. Embry met her look with a calm one of his own.

"Why not? It's not cursed or anything, is it? You'd probably feel better if you actually talked about him more."

"Shut _up,_ Call," the she-wolf growled, turning around again and heading for her apartment as fast as she could. Why did he have to bring it up? Couldn't he see that she _really_ didn't want to talk about him?

"No. I've known you all my life, Leah, so you can't intimidate me. This is something we need to talk about."

"Oh, it is?" Leah sneered, sarcasm heavy as they approached her apartment, the keys already in her hand. "Now, why would you think that the subject of _my_ imprint has anything to do with _you?_"

"Because you're a single, attractive woman who I would really like to get to know on a more intimate level."

Leah stilled with the key halfway in the lock, his words making her stomach swoop and dance. She drew in a shaky breath and leaned forward to rest her forehead against the door, jumping when Embry took her gently by the shoulders and turned her around. His smile was understanding and very gentle as he reached up to brush her hair back behind her ears.

"He's thirteen, Lee. Even if you were in his life, he'd still be far too young. You shouldn't feel guilty for experiencing the things that a normal, healthy, full-grown woman feels for a normal, healthy, full-grown man."

"I shouldn't be feeling anything for you at all," Leah muttered, scowling down at the sidewalk. "Jake didn't and I don't think Quil does either."

"Yes, but they're around their imprints almost 24/7," Embry argued, lifting her chin until she was looking into his eyes. "You haven't seen yours in four years. Don't you think that the time and distance would have some sort of effect?"

Leah swallowed. "But… I'm taken."

"No," Embry answered immediately, stepping in closer to her so that she was pressed against the door. "You're not. If you were, then I wouldn't have been able to hear the way your heart pounded every time I touched you. The way it's pounding now."

His eyes fell to her lips and Leah drew in a stuttering breath, unintentionally pushing her chest against his, which only made Embry's eyes darkened further as a flame began to burn in their depths. Leah licked her lips, a nervous move, and then bit the bottom one when his gaze followed the movement of her tongue. He looked into her eyes again and ever so slowly leaned in, stopping when Leah pressed her hand against his chest.

"I don't… I don't think the imprint… I don't think it's possible to break it. I don't even know if I want to break it," she whispered. Embry's mouth was so close, their breaths mingled.

"I'm not asking you to break it, Lee," he murmured in reply, one hand drifting down her side to rest on her hip, the other reaching out to cup her jaw. "I'm just asking for a chance. Don't you think you should take happiness wherever you can?"

Leah held his gaze for a long moment as his words swirled in her head. Happiness was a foreign concept to her. Why was that, though? Why shouldn't she be happy? Nate was living his life as he saw fit, shouldn't she be doing the same thing? Embry was funny, good-looking, kind, had a body she really wanted to see sprawled across her duvet, and was a generally nice guy. He knew exactly what she was going through and she could definitely do a lot worse. Why the hell was she hesitating?

Mind made up, she let a slow smile spread across her face. "A chance, huh? Is that _all_ you want?"

Embry's answering smirk was lightning quick, his eyes lighting as his hand moved to cup the back of her head. "Oh, I think I can think of a couple of other things as well," he murmured, making the she-wolf laugh quietly, before the sound was cut off by his mouth covering hers. Leah stilled for a second and then sighed into his mouth, putting everything out of her head and kissing him back, allowing herself to live in the moment and just enjoy.

* * *

**A/N - Okay, since I seem to suck at not letting a chapter get away from me, let's just say that this story will end when it ends, shall we? :) Thanks everyone for reading and let me know what you think!**


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